Even a cover-your-ears sex scene between Carrie and Brody fails to give
Homeland a lift, says Martin Chilton

It's a wonder there is any real anti-terrorism work done at the CIA given all the hanky-panky that seems to go on.

Recent episodes of the second series of Homeland have been a bit flaccid and they tried to pep things up in last night's show I'll Fly Away with some steamy action between Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis).

The cat-and-mouse game over Brody was getting out of hand, with the Congressman threatening to walk out on his new role as a CIA 'triple agent'. "I'm through," he yelled at Roya Hammad (Zuleikha Robinson), who must have the most sparkly white teeth of any terrorist in the world.

Carrie has to rescue the situation by getting up close and personal with Brody again. She runs away with him, and this time they cavort in a Motel room rather than on a car seat. They have such pantingly loud, headboard-thumping sex that she might have been auditioning for the remake of When Harry Met Sally. The crafty old CIA were listening in electronically but they could probably have heard her two states away. And thanks to Homeland, we now know what top CIA executives do after eavesdropping on a colleague having sex. They have post-coital chewing gum.

The sex scene did provide the highlight of the episode - the anguished expression on mentor Saul Berenson's face as he listened to the rumpus. Carrie, naturally in the world that is Homeland, is not instantly removed from duty for taking a known terrorist "off the grid". Saul successfully pleads her case, saying: "She's turning it around!" (we know, Saul, we heard too).

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When 24 was struggling, Jack Bauer came out in full body armour. As Homeland flags, Carrie does full body amour. And there is another 24-like element dragging this season down. It has veered into Kim Bauer angsty daughter territory. With 24 it was at least agreeably ludicrous (Kim fought a mountain cougar and was kept captive by Entourage's Johnny Drama) but the Homeland daughter subplot - Dana was in a car driven by the vice president's son that killed an old (poor) immigrant in a hit-and-run crash - is improbable and dull.

And although Brody's wife Jessica (Morena Baccarin) was a teensy bit shouty at the start, she soon settled into her role as a human Disney fawn of the forest, craning her neck up in acceptance of an always MIA husband.

There are plot holes (nobody ever seems to recognise Brody in public, Quinn is tickety-boo only days after being machine-gunned in the stomach and bipolar Carrie seems to no longer need any meds) but Homeland - already renewed for a third season - stands and falls ultimately on the Carrie-Brody dynamic. Some find it full of energy, tension and moral ambiguity but there is an increasing whiff of soap opera cliche. When Brody is curled against a wall in the foetal position he pleads:

"Everything is falling apart . . . this is a ...." (can you guess?) ..." nightmare"

and Carrie's contorted facial expressions seem like preparation for a silent movie. You long for the simple hangdog looks of her spy assistant Virgil (played by David Marciano, so good as Billings in The Shield).

I'll Fly Away builds up to the climax of another "blown op", as surveillance fails and Brody is taken away by the terrorists in a chopper to meet a surprise visitor.

The dark figure is brought over to Brody. "Nicholas," he drawls. It's chief baddie Abu Nazir - and he's in the US of A.